Readicide

I think I want this book.

Walk Score

Here’s a website worth checking out if you own a good pair of shoes and don’t mind using them once in a while. It’s called Walk Score and it gauges the pedestrian-friendliness of locations.

Type in any address or pair of cross streets in the U.S. (or Europe for that matter), and the site maps the area and plots the nearby recreational, commercial, cultural, and social amenities. Even better, for the quantitatively inclined, it assigns each location a walk score on a 0 to 100 scale.

The site doesn’t take weather, safety, topography (e.g. hills), or the characteristics of the street network into account. (To their credit, the site’s creators cheerfully admit to these shortcomings.) But in all, the walk scores are pretty much what you’d intuitively expect, providing a degree of confidence the site is getting it right. Here’s a sampling:

My house: 80
My work: 63
My mom's house: 77
My dad's house: 0
Kelly's work: 65
Kelly's parents: 2


thanks

Race Appearance Question

A white woman and a Chinese man (or switch the genders - it doesn't really matter) have a baby together in America.

Does that baby only look more Chinese than white to me because I live in a country where our majority race is white?

Would the same baby look more white than Chinese to the people around her if she was instead born in China?

Shapes, Figures and Excuses

I went jogging today. Well, sort of. I went out with the intention of jogging today. What actually happened was more of a walk/something-slow-that-resembles-jogging mix. In the end, it tells me that I'm out of shape! Yeah, yeah, there's the possibility there for a string of excuses - it's ninety degrees out today...I just had a baby - but I don't really want to hear them. I think I've been relying on excuses for a little too long, this time. It's starting to get a little annoying that I haven't lost any more weight. I lost a bunch in the first two weeks after E was born, and since then I've lost zip. Which basically tells me I've only lost pity weight and that for whatever reason, my body (stupidly and wrongly) believes it needs this last ten pounds for something.

So, I'm stepping up the effort. Not like I've just been sitting around doing nothing all this time - I just don't want to stay trapped in the I-just-had-a-baby mindset. Because I didn't just have a baby. I had a baby three months ago. And whereas "just" is a pretty relative term, it's not that relative to three full months.

'Tis the Season

There's something in the air lately that's been giving me watery eyes and a stuffy/runny nose. Blech. Not to mention the headaches, itchy eyes, and itchy skin. And I think that whatever it is has been bugging Eleanor, too, because she's having similar symptoms. It's making me dread going to Portland this weekend just a little bit because there's something at Kelly's parents' farm during the summers that my body doesn't like either. I'm hoping this trip is different, though, because in all other regards I'm really looking forward to the trip. I don't know how people with serious allergies do it! It's only been a couple days of little problems and I'm already super sick of it all!

Ten years. Count 'em. Ten.

Well, my reunion is coming up this summer. In just a couple weeks, actually. Whenever I mention that, people ask either if I'm going or if I'm excited about it - sometimes they ask me both questions. Well, yeah, I'm going - to part of it, anyway. I would go to the other part, but I have family obligations that day. Excited? No, I wouldn't say that. I don't really know why I'm going...other than I was invited. I'm not excited. I'm not curious. I'm not hoping to reconnect with old friends. I'm not planning revenge on any of the popular kids. I'm not even expecting to laugh at all the people who have gotten fat (not that I would do that...it just seems to be a common thing I've heard of women doing at their reunions lately). I'm just going, expecting to have a nice evening. Maybe I'll laugh with people about high school stories, probably some that I'd forgotten about, and maybe I'll find that I have more in common with people today than I used to. Who knows? I think one reason I'm sort of ambivalent about the whole ordeal is that I'm pretty different from the girl I was in high school and I feel like I fit into a totally different crowd now. These days, I'm more liberal, less pretentious, more settled, less naive, more calm and less narrow in my views of myself and the world. I drink and swear more and worry less about screwing up. I laugh more and say yes more and am less inclined to sit back and watch other people being cool, secretly wishing that could be me. But, then again, I have a different definition of cool, now, too.

Anyway, it's been ten whole years. Ten. And I feel pretty good about those ten years. Good enough, anyway, that I bought a ticket...and now look forward to buying a rockin' cocktail dress for the affair. I may not be going to compare myself against the other people there, but when the people who go for that purpose sit and compare themselves to me, or even compare me now to me then, I want them to have to think for a while first.

Weirdest Mail Ever

I received the weirdest, most random mail ever Wednesday: one ticket to the Indianapolis 500 practice, one ticket to the Indianapolis 500 qualifications, a lunch voucher for the 500 Festival, and a schedule of events for the Friends of the Festival Appreciation Day - events that occurred last month - in a hand-written envelope from Indianapolis.

1. I make fun of racing and, to a degree, people who watch it - mostly this is limited to serious fans. I'm just being honest here (sorry Dad...but FYI I never make fun of you). And in my defense, my making fun of people is never mean and is mostly just in my head.

2. These tickets were for an event that happened a month ago!

3. To my knowledge, I know no one who lives in Indianapolis, let alone Indiana.

4. My name was misspelled on the envelope - a misspelling I've never seen before: Angelar. But my last name, the name most people mess up, was fine. As was the rest of my address.

5. I looked up the return address on line (it was provided sans name). Nothing came up on the white pages reverse directory and Google maps street view showed a residential neighborhood.

6. There have been no weird or unexplained charges on my checking account or credit card.

7. On ebay, these month-old tickets would score me $10. Maybe.

It's a mystery! Is anyone out there who thinks they may have an answer or at least another clue?